Ethnographic Research Methodology in Practice
Ethnographic research is one of the dominant methodologies in my field of study. While I have read ethnographic research studies in the past, this project gave me an opportunity to actually study how the methodology was used in different ways. To select my articles, I went to a folder I created for a project I am working on with my research advisor involving ethnicity and race talk in classrooms. After reviewing the abstracts, I selected three articles that used ethnography and discussed ethnicity or race in some way.
Three Examples of Ethnographic Research Methodology
Themes of race, culture, and ethnicity are prominent in each of the articles discussed in this paper; however, the researchers …show more content…
The research questions that Evaldsson presents do not align closely with critical race theory upon first glance because they do not include the words race, culture, or ethnicity. The questions focus on how students create and respond to insults. Critical race theory is more apparent in the discussion surrounding the broader research purpose, in which Evaldsson describes the racial and ethnic categorizations that transpire during insult creation. Lewis and Pollock did not provide their research questions, so the reader must deduce the research questions based on the narratives presented. The lack of clarity makes it difficult to see the articulation of the theoretical framework to research questions. Likewise, the connection between the research questions, methodology, and methods becomes less transparent. In fact, many of the details that qualify quantitative research as trustworthy and transferable are not included in these three …show more content…
All of the researchers conducted long-term fieldwork for a least a year and incorporated dialogic and reflective methods typical of critical race theory and ethnography. Evaldsson (2005) integrated ethnographic approaches with conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis. She video recorded 50 hours of playground activity as well as 50 hours of classroom interaction. Lewis (2001) and Pollock (2004) did not conduct any video recordings, but they did conduct interviews. In Lewis’s (2001) study of race bending at the Columbus High School, she conducted informal interviews with youth and adult about race categorizations. Additionally, she used her personal journal from her first year teaching in 1994-1995 as a reference for examples of race talk. Lewis also described how when she noticed race talk at the school, she would immediately reconstruct the conversation. Video recording or a more formalized process would have increased the trustworthiness of her data. Even though Pollock (2004) did not use video recording, her data collection process seemed more formalized than Lewis’s method. Pollock spent two days a week conducting participant observation in classroom for the entire school year. She attended staff and Parent-Teacher Association meetings as well as conducted formal and informal interviews with students, parents, and
Ethnographic research is one of the dominant methodologies in my field of study. While I have read ethnographic research studies in the past, this project gave me an opportunity to actually study how the methodology was used in different ways. To select my articles, I went to a folder I created for a project I am working on with my research advisor involving ethnicity and race talk in classrooms. After reviewing the abstracts, I selected three articles that used ethnography and discussed ethnicity or race in some way.
Three Examples of Ethnographic Research Methodology
Themes of race, culture, and ethnicity are prominent in each of the articles discussed in this paper; however, the researchers …show more content…
The research questions that Evaldsson presents do not align closely with critical race theory upon first glance because they do not include the words race, culture, or ethnicity. The questions focus on how students create and respond to insults. Critical race theory is more apparent in the discussion surrounding the broader research purpose, in which Evaldsson describes the racial and ethnic categorizations that transpire during insult creation. Lewis and Pollock did not provide their research questions, so the reader must deduce the research questions based on the narratives presented. The lack of clarity makes it difficult to see the articulation of the theoretical framework to research questions. Likewise, the connection between the research questions, methodology, and methods becomes less transparent. In fact, many of the details that qualify quantitative research as trustworthy and transferable are not included in these three …show more content…
All of the researchers conducted long-term fieldwork for a least a year and incorporated dialogic and reflective methods typical of critical race theory and ethnography. Evaldsson (2005) integrated ethnographic approaches with conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis. She video recorded 50 hours of playground activity as well as 50 hours of classroom interaction. Lewis (2001) and Pollock (2004) did not conduct any video recordings, but they did conduct interviews. In Lewis’s (2001) study of race bending at the Columbus High School, she conducted informal interviews with youth and adult about race categorizations. Additionally, she used her personal journal from her first year teaching in 1994-1995 as a reference for examples of race talk. Lewis also described how when she noticed race talk at the school, she would immediately reconstruct the conversation. Video recording or a more formalized process would have increased the trustworthiness of her data. Even though Pollock (2004) did not use video recording, her data collection process seemed more formalized than Lewis’s method. Pollock spent two days a week conducting participant observation in classroom for the entire school year. She attended staff and Parent-Teacher Association meetings as well as conducted formal and informal interviews with students, parents, and